pete_a

I'm heading down to Mexico in January to climb Ixta and Orizaba with some friends. I'm not really searching for beta on the climbs more than I'm looking to get info from folks who will be heading there sometime earlier this coming winter or were there last year and can fill me in on the current crime level there, safe travelling lessons you may have learned, good places to stay near the volcanoes, etc. Thanks. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

I'm thinking about heading up to Forbidden Peak this weekend to climb the west ridge. Just curious if anyone has been up there in the past week or so and could provide some beta as to how the snow conditions are in the coulior approaching/descending from the west ridge. Any info would be appreciated. Also...probably going to do it in one day..how many hours before dawn does one need to leave the trailhead in order to pull this off? Thanks Pete

Grab your skis and go high this weekend, snow level 7000 ft, that means late July freshies up on the Muir Snowfield, Russell glacier, assorted spots up by Baker and Rainier. Hang up the rope and shoes for a weekend and grab the boards, this is a gift take advantage of it!

I know someone who had there car broken in to at the Downey Creek trailhead just a couple weeks ago..they discovered this after completing the Ptarmigan Traverse...what a wonderful sight it must have been to return to civilization only to discover your car has been ransacked. Sounds to me like some rednecks up to no good living around the town of Darrington have been making regular visits to both these trailheads and trashing cars....I say some folks do some buglar baiting!

thats great news about Oregon High, next time I'm in Portland I'll have to look around for it.

Glad to see some folks agree with me Matt! Although I do enjoy the generally far superior rock of the North Cascades now that I live in Seattle, the Oregon Cascdes have some fine routes, and the definitely teach you a thing or two about routefinding and safe mountain travel. Smoots book is fine and all, but I think he goes a little overboard with labeling climbs as scull and cross-bones routes. I wish I still had my copy of Oregon High but I lost it years ago, hopefully there will be another edition of it someday, its got lots of great descriptions of routes in it that Smoot doesn't even cover.

As someone who grew up in Oregon before moving to Seattle in search of better alpine rock to play on, I have a fair amount of experience on North Sister. I've climbed it many times back when I was a college student and by no means is the standard route on North Sister all that bad. You have to realize that the rock quality is awful, but that in mind, its really an interesting climb, and late season climbing really doesn't increase the danger as long as you stick to the south ridge route, I wouldn't dare try climbing any of the gullies or couliors after the snow is gone. The worst part about the climb is traversing a steep snow patch below the summit pinnacle on west face and the 3rd-4th class climb up to the top. The book 'Oregon High' now out of print, does a much better job describing the Oregon Cascades rather interesting rock quality. I'd recommend trying to track it down for better descriptions of routes in the Sisters.

Mowich lake road opening estimate July 18th-19th according to todays phone recording road report. What gives!?! I just wanna ski the Flett glaciers and not have to bike up the road, is this too much to ask?

Hey Wayne and Jennie, I was one of the two guys you met who were hiking in the BB trail and camped at Wiley Lake. Nice meeting y'all up there on Challenger. Glad to hear that your trips out from the mountain went well. My buddy Norm wasn't feeling so hot Friday morning so I gave him a break and we took a rest day and waited for the weather to clear. Saturday was a great day to summit, no one else on the upper mountain and warm enough I didn't mind taking my gloves off to lead up the rock pitch to the top. Let me know if you guys are ever looking for another to join up for a key-exchange traverse of something else up in the North Cascades. Pete peter_alderson@hotmail.com

Jerry, I just got back last night from climbing Challenger. My buddy and I approached from the Big Beaver trail. Its a pretty straightforward approach except for about four to five hours of hell bushwacking from Beaver Pass gaining the ridge that continues west to Challenger. We had planned to do a couple more climbs while in the area, but were more than satisfied to just get Challenger. The glacier is in good shape, there is a snowbridge crossing the bergschrund, but it looks pretty thick and end-running the schrund looks quite doable too. Feel free to drop me an email if you'd like some more beta about this approach. We ran into two teams while up there that were traversing the easy ridge approach to the big beaver trail. At least one person we talked with writes in to this site, so they might write in and you can get some recent beta on the 'imperfect impasse'. Good luck, its a great climb with incredible views. Pete peter_alderson@hotmail.com

silly question, but from what you guys saw up there at Pineapple Pass is there enough snow to get in some skiing back in there. Just thought it might be kind of fun to drive up there after work today or tomorrow and see if I can't get some turns in before dark, any info would be greatly appreciated. peter_alderson@hotmail.com

Just curious if anyone has climbed the 35-50 degree snow/ice climb up the north side of Maude this season. I'm trying to figure out if it might be in shape for this weekend. Thanks.

Hi all, So I've got a week vacation next week, and I had planned to do the Ptarmigan Traverse, but my friends and although we are still hoping we can do the traverse,we are now looking at what we should do if the weather craps out on us. One idea is to head south and ski the hotlum-wintun ridge on Shasta, but what I was wondering is...are there any crevasses, icefalls, seracs that form on those nearby glaciers to make for an entertaining day of ice climbing? Of course, if anyone else has a suggestion for a good multi-day climbing trip contigency plan if I can't do the Ptarmigan, I'd love to hear it. Thanks.

So some friends of mine and I for months have been planning on taking a shot at doing the Ptarmigan the week of Memorial Day...We figured with the low snowpack this year, conditions would probably be similar to what climbers see by mid-summer during a normal year, and this is really the only time that all of us can take a week from our jobs. But the recent nasty weather up in the Cascades has me worried and I'm in need of some advice...should we scrap out plans for the traverse and look for some other fun stuff to do that week or do you think it could go, as long as the forecast isn't for pouring rain/snow. Thanks

Hey climbwhat, You sound like the person to get some beta from. I was thinking of going into Colchuck Lake this weekend to do some skiing down the Colchuck glacier, but it sounds like skiing down Asgard is a no-go right now. Is going over Asgard to get to Little Annapurna and some other Enchantment ski destination going to be a hazardous waste of time? Any beta will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

My opinion...wait till next weekend and see if the avy danger is lower. The lower slopes of St.Helens seem to actually be steeper than the upper bowl on the Worm Flows route and that part of the lower mountain turns to mush by late morning on sunny days. Plus if you wait till next weekend you can participate in the annual Mothers Day ski in a dress day on St.Helens...every Mothers Day a big group of wacko backcountry skiers meet on the summit of St.Helens and ski down wearing dresses for no real particular reason....its a really hilarious event. Next Sunday is also the last day before the climbing permit quota goes into effect on the mountain for the summer.

Thanks for the beta, I really appreciate it. One more question though...I'm doing the approach on my tele gear, so I'm while I'm sure climbing up the coulior is fine in T1's with crampons...is last little part of the route to reach the top going to need a pair of mountaineering boots? Thanks

I'm thinking about heading up to do the SW coulior on S. Early Winter Spire this weekend and am lookin' for some beta. I saw the previous posts from several weeks ago on this route and I'm curious if you all think it would be a waste of time to head up this now, or if there would still be some good snow to climb on in the coulior. Can I get away with bringing a smaller rope (should I use my little 8mm glacier rope or bring a 10.5mm 25m long rope, or bring a full length rope) Thanks.

well, it makes me feel better to know I'm not the only one who's pulled a bonehead move like this trying to escape the weather...I already bought a replacement cam, and I'm never skipping re-racking my gear immediately after a climb again.

Okay, I know its a long shot that the folks who check this website may have stumbled across some rather valuable booty at Smith, but I figured I'd give it a shot. Sunday, April 1st I was at Smith with a few friends and at the end of the day we were climbing Cinnamon Slab, just as we finished the climb it started to rain and we packed rather hastily and took off for the car. For the first time ever, I did not bother to re-rack and double check to make sure I had all my gear. And as it turns out, somewhere at the base of the climb I left behind my #3 BD Camalot...ouch! Expensive mistake eh? Anyways, if anyone happened to come across it and feels like getting some good karma for returning it, I can probably provide some reward $$ as well. Please let me know, thanks, peter_alderson@hotmail.com

Hi all, I am looking for some beta on the Ptarmigan Traverse. Some friends of mine and I are hoping to do the traverse the last week of May. Due to the low snowpack this year, I'm thinking this will be an alright time to do the trip but if anyone knows of any on-line trip reports or pictures from past groups doing the traverse I'd really appreciate the info. I'd specifically be interested in the type of equipment needed, rope, rock pro, ice pro, ice tools..or just an axe, etc. Thanks.

I've had a 37m Ice Floss rope for a couple years now and use it all the time on glacier climbs, I don't like to use it for routes much steeper than Rainier's Fuhrer Finger, but for roping up on glaciers and trips with long approaches its a great rope. Ditto on the waterproofing, never noticed that it soaked up water after a day of being dragged on a glacier.

All you can eat, My recommendation, as lame as it might sound, get a good job as soon as possible right out of school. I was amazed at the amout of free time I have now as compared to when I was student, not to mention the fact that I now have money to buy gear and travel...and the best part...paid vacation time. I've been saving mine for a year and a half now and will use it while climbing Denali's West Rib next year...there can't be anything better than going away for a month to climb, and getting paid for it! So, I say join the corporate masses, just don't lose the climbing bum mentality!

Ditto on Mr. Twight being a hell of guy. I met him last year and I was amazed at how approachable he was and how friendly he was to everyone. No ego, great sense of humor, and more crazy climbing stories than I've heard from anyone before. If you've never met the guy, you have no grounds to rip on him.

Had a good weekend looking for climbable ice around central Washington. I think I must have met Geordie and a few others from this site at trailhead for Hubba Hubba Hill Saturday evening after I had finished up climbing on the Millenium Wall. The M.Wall had some fun ice, only swung through the ice to hit rock a couple times, and it was moderately easy to scramble up to set up a top rope on a 40 foot smear. After hearing of the lack of other climbs that were 'in' at the time my buddies and I drove down to Umptaneum Falls for Sunday and toproped a really nice, fat 30' tall formation.